racism in America
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Text messages sent to Black people across the United States after the presidential election have caught the attention of federal authorities.
In the wake of the presidential election Tuesday (Nov. 5), a disturbing phenomenon has occurred in which Black people have received racist text messages summoning them for slavery. The incidents have occurred in close to 25 states, prompting federal agencies to begin investigations.
The troubling messages followed a pattern of addressing the recipients by their name and telling them they were selected to “pick cotton” at a plantation, then ordering them to be ready for pick-up at a certain time. Some variations included references to President-elect Donald Trump, and others included, “NO PHONES.”
The NAACP stated that the messages had been received by college students in Alabama, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. New York State Attorney General Letitia James confirmed that middle school and high school students as well as college-age students also received those messages in the state. Officials in Connecticut and California confirmed that residents there also received those texts.
The texts were reportedly sent out as early as Wednesday morning (Nov. 6), with reporting by CBS News affirming that it was through a service called Text Now, which offers free phone numbers. The company issued a statement as the news broke, writing: “One or more of our accounts may have been used to send text messages in violation of our terms of service,” adding it shut down the accounts as it became aware. The Federal Bureau confirmed that it was on the case in a statement: “The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter.”
In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said that the president-elect’s “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.” Trump’s presidential campaign was rife with racist sentiments, ranging from slandering Haitian immigrants in Ohio in August, to having a comedian insult Puerto Ricans at his controversial Madison Square Garden rally last month. The barrage of messages queue up the most dangerous times for Black people in the United States. “These actions are not normal,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “And we refuse to let them be normalized.”
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty / Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan got caught in 4K, making a complete a** out himself.
TMZ Sports exclusively shared a video of the WWE Hall-of-Famer talking about allegedly performing wrestling moves on Vice President Kamala Harris while promoting his beer at a bar in Medina, Ohio, on Monday.
The iconic wrestler, who also was caught on tape saying the N-word with the hard ER, also used the moment to take a page out of the MAGA GOP playbook by questioning VP Harris’ racial identity.
Hogan might have realized he had crossed a line blaming his violent rhetoric on the booze he was drinking.
Per TMZ Sports:
The Hulkster was at the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina, Ohio promoting his new beer Monday night when he grabbed the mic and started firing up the crowd … and things quickly flew off the rails.
Hulk asked the place … “Want me to body-slam Kamala Harris? Want me to drop the leg on Kamala?”
Hulk took some more shots at Kamala in Ohio, including mocking her Indian heritage, and making a racist gesture referring to indigenous Americans. So … racist and ignorant, if you’re keeping score.
At that point, Hulk seemed to realize he may have taken things too far … and said it was just the beers talking.
https://twitter.com/tltown2019/status/1825977905375228332
Hulk Hogan Is Team MAGA All The Way
Hogan threw his bandana into the political space when he appeared during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He happily ripped off his shirt, revealing he was down with the MAGA movement.
His jabs in the video should be no surprise because we know how Team MAGA gets down.
Folks on X, formerly Twitter, have been hitting the Hulkster with Stone Cold Stunner, calling him a racist and expressing disappointment in the once-beloved professional wrestler.
Welp.
He is never beating the racist allegations.
In the gallery below, you can see more reactions to Hulk Hogan making an a** out of himself.
1. We been on the energy
2. Wrestling gods if you’re listening
3. You think?
5. Lol, facts
7. You know that is not happening
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Angela Alsobrooks is preparing to represent the Democratic Party this fall in the upcoming elections for one of Maryland‘s U.S. Senate seats yet is enduring a harrowing event in her home state. A sign featuring Anglea Alsobrooks was defaced in the city of Laurel with racist imagery and police are now investigating.
Angela Alsobrooks, a former state’s attorney for Maryland’s Prince George’s County and also its former county executive, is currently vying for the U.S. Senate against former Republican Party Maryland governor, Larry Hogan.
Maryland, a traditionally Democratic Party-leaning state, handily positioned Alsobrooks against her party rival, Sen. David Trone, en route to earning the right to become just the third Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. However, unknown forces are looking to dull Alsobrooks’ momentum by defacing a sign.
According to a report from local outlet Fox 5 DC, the perpetrators placed “KKK” symbols on the sign along with placing crosshairs on Alsobrooks’ forehead in the photo. Alsobrooks’ campaign issued a statement to the news station, essentially saying that this brazen attempt to rattle Alsobrooks won’t deter the team’s plans.
“We were made aware of this very unsettling incident, and our paramount concern is Angela’s safety. However, this sort of hateful threat will not deter Angela or her campaign,” read the statement to Fox 5 DC.
Hogan also took to X and posted a statement that hate crimes have no place in the state.
“Hate, threats of violence, and racism must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. They have no place in Maryland,” Hogan wrote, which prompted a flurry of negative replies on not being critical enough of the act.
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American Airlines’ current motto is “Let good take flight,” but that wasn’t true for three Black male passengers.
The airline company is now the subject of a racial discrimination lawsuit after three Black men, who say they don’t know each other, were ordered off their flight back in January.
The three men filed their lawsuit in a New York federal court on Wednesday, May 29, claiming they, along with five other Black men, were asked to get off a Phoenix flight before it departed.
The Grio reports the men were sitting in different sections of the plane and said an airline employee informed them that they were removed because a flight attendant complained about a passenger’s body odor.
The men feel their removal from the flight was solely due to their race.
The lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, says American Airlines offered to rebook their flights but allowed the men back on the plane after it was clear there were no other flights to New York.
American Airlines Is Investigating The Incident
Susan Huhta, an employment law attorney in Washington, D.C., who is representing the three men, said, “If American Airlines received a complaint about a Black male passenger with offensive body odor but could not verify the complaint, the solution should not have been to eject eight separate Black men from the plane.”
“We take all claims of discrimination very seriously and want our customers to have a positive experience when they choose to fly with us,” American Airlines said in a statement. “Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people.”
This latest incident comes after American Airlines said they would make changes after the NAACP issued a warning in 2017 to Black travelers about booking flights with the airline due to several African American passengers saying they experienced racial discrimination.
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Kid Rock, who has as much talent as most folks have in their left toenail, is still making headlines for reasons outside his make-believe music career. During a recent interview, the MAGA-loving former struggle rapper turned struggle rocker waved his gun at the journalist while dropping some racial slurs for good measure.
The career arc of Kid Rock was examined in a new interview from Rolling Stone in which journalist David Peisner looked deeper into the man, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, and how he became aligned with all things Donald Trump.
At one stretch of the interview, an intoxicated Kid Rock waved a gun along with other antics befitting a guy who seems to be nothing more than a raging clout demon. This came after Rock and Peisner were locked into a debate about Trump’s racist and xenophobic stances against immigrants, especially those hailing from Mexico.
From Rolling Stone:
By this time, I’ve long since quit drinking, but Ritchie has exchanged his white wine for Jim Beam and Diet Coke. He proceeds to drain at least three or four of them in pretty quick succession. He’s sitting in a dark leather chair, shouting at me about something or other, when he reaches behind the seat, pulls out a black handgun, and waves it around to make some sort of point.
“And I got a fucking goddamn gun right here if I need it!” he shouts. “I got them everywhere!”
This was the tenor of the next hour or so. We start talking about American history, and he rightfully brings up slavery and the genocide of Native Americans as stains on that history. I ask him if he worries that in the modern day he might be on the wrong side of history.
“No. It was the Republicans that freed the f*cking slaves!”
“Yes, but the Republicans were the progressive party back then.”
In this exact exchange, Rock refers to the infamous Trick Trick as “the hardest-hitting n*gger in Detroit” and claims that the legendary underground rapper and producer supported Rock’s embrace of Trump.
Kid Rock saw his name trending Monday (May 20) due to the Rolling Stone interview and people just generally kicking his back in. We’ve got reactions listed below.
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The founder of athletic wear giant Lululemon is facing renewed backlash after expressing his dislike for the company’s diversity & and equality initiatives, prompting the company to distance itself.
In an interview, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson caused more controversy when he expressed his dismay about the company’s diversity and equality initiative efforts, referring to it as a “whole diversity and inclusion thing.” The Vancouver, British Columbia native spoke to Forbes Magazine for an in-depth profile interview when he made those remarks. He began by commenting on the women-centered brand’s models in their advertisements, calling them “unhealthy,” “sickly” and “not inspirational.”
Wilson would go further, stating: “They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody. And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody… You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.” The 67-year-old billionaire also belittled Lululemon’s move to include larger-sized people by having clothing that fits individuals up to size 20 in its six core styles, and considered their expansion into men’s wear “appalling.”
Wilson stepped down from the company in 2013 after remarking that the see-through effect of leggings from the athleisure brand could be blamed on “some women’s bodies.” “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time,” he stated. In a 2004 interview with the Canada National Post Business Magazine, he drew sharp criticism after revealing his inspiration for naming Lululemon: “I recognized that the Japanese consumer liked a name with an L in it because the letter isn’t in the Japanese language. It sounded American,” he said at the time. “So I thought if I ever have another company I am going to put three L’s in it,” before adding “It’s funny to watch them try and say it.”
According to former employees interviewed last November, that culture of discrimination still exists. A statement released by Lululemon in response to Wilson’s remarks slammed the founder, saying: “Chip Wilson does not speak for Lululemon, and his comments do not reflect our company views or beliefs. Chip has not been involved with the company since his resignation from the board in 2015 and we are a very different company today.” The spokesperson added, “We also recognize that becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization takes time and is only possible through the sustained efforts of our leaders and our people.”
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A white judge who boasted of pointing a loaded gun at a Black man in a New York courtroom has been removed from the bench.
According to reports, a judge in upstate New York who is white was removed from the bench by the state’s highest court after bragging about pointing a loaded gun at a Black man appearing in his courtroom. The state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct handed down the decision to remove Justice Robert J. Putorti on Thursday. He would be the 10th judge to be removed by the Court of Appeals in the last decade.
The incident, which took place in 2015, came a year after Putorti began serving as a judge in Whitehall, New York. According to the appellate court records, a man appeared before Putorti for a hearing over an unpaid fine. Putorti pointed the loaded firearm at the man, who was Black, as he approached the bench. The judge claimed that he drew the firearm after feeling that the litigant approached the bench too quickly. Putorti was known to keep a firearm (which he was licensed to carry) attached to the underside of the bench as he heard cases. He is also an owner of Bigboy’s, a gun and ammunition store in Whitehall.
Putorti would repeatedly tell the story of the incident to family and friends, exaggerating the build and demeanor of the Black litigant by referring to him as “agitated,” a “big Black man” who was “6 feet 9 inches tall” and “built like a football player,” and would say he “feared for his safety”. The man was actually 6 feet and weighed 165 pounds. “We have never had a situation other than this case, where a judge — with or without justification — pointed a gun at a litigant in a courthouse,” Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator for the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, in a statement issued after the decision.
Putorti would concede later that the assistant district attorney nor the police officer stationed within the courtroom would corroborate his account of the situation. The Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended that he be fired last year, but Putorti appealed. However, the appeals board found that Putorti “exploited a classic and common racist trope that Black men are inherently threatening or dangerous,” showing clear bias. They also noted a lack of remorse, as Putorti was participating in fundraising events for the Elks Lodge while on suspension for the incident.
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Jann Wenner, a co-founder of popular music publication Rolling Stone, found himself the target of criticism after delivering comments some deemed racist and sexist. Wenner has since apologized for the comments, but he was still ousted from the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped establish, in the wake.
As seen on Deadline, Jann Wenner, 77, was recently profiled by the New York Times in support of his upcoming book, The Masters, focusing on seven iconic musicians who all happen to be white and male. The figures Wenner interviewed are Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Jerry Garcia and Pete Townsend — all of whom are considered legends in music.
In the Times piece, Wenner was questioned on just interviewing white male artists, he went on to say that women weren’t, quote, “as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”
Wenner also used the same talking point when speaking of Black artists.
Wenner also employed the “articulate” argument in his explanation of why he excluded Black artists.
“Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s board voted just after the Times profile was published and Wenner promptly followed with a prepared statement attempting to clarify his stance.
“In my interview with The New York Times I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius, and impact of Black and women artists, and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks,” Wenner said.
The statement continues, “The Masters is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock ’n’ roll’s impact on my world; they were not meant to represent the whole of music and its diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career. They don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live. I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences.”
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The shooting in Jacksonville that was enacted by a gunman who targeted Black people was revealed to be a white supremacist by authorities investigating the matter. The shooting took place over the weekend, claiming three victims and officials are still piecing together the evidence leading up to the fatal event.
The shooting took place Saturday afternoon at a Florida Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Fla. around 2 PM local time.
Jacksonville County Sheriff T.K. Waters shared in a news conference that the shooter left behind disturbing messages on his computer and that he altered his father about where to find his writings ahead of firing a rifle similar in scope to an AR-15 weapon inside the store. The gun, according to reports, was adorned with swastikas, and the shooter was also armed with a handgun.
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“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Sheriff Waters, who is Black, said over the weekend at the news conference. “He wanted to kill n*ggers.”
According to a report from the Associated Press, the 21-year-old white male shooter took his own life shortly after the shooting. While details of his manifestos have not been shared publicly since this is a recent matter, authorities say that his writings were motivated by racist ideology and hate speech.
Gov. Ron DeSantis attended a Sunday afternoon vigil in honor of the three Jacksonville shooting victims but was loudly booed when he took the microphone to speak to the crowd. DeSantis, who is Republican and running for his party’s presidential nomination, has made obtaining high-powered guns easier in the state due to freeing up gun laws and has been critical of issues important to Black people such as critical race theory.
Sheriff Waters identified the names of the victims during the press conference. Angela Carr, 52, was shot while sitting in her care. Dollar General employee A.J. Laguerre, 19, was shot as he tried to run away. Customer Jerrald Gallion, 29, was shot as he entered the Dollar General.
The gunman’s name has not been revealed.
[h/t NewsOne]
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Jason Aldean got involved in America’s silly culture war after Country Music Television removed the video for his controversial song “Try That In A Small Town” from its platform. Because the MAGA Nuts and the “Respect My Rights” crowd are sensitive little cherubs, they’re complaining about the takedown while dragging Garth Brooks into the beef.
Let’s take our time with this one.
Jason Aldean, a popular country music star who once notched a big hit with Ludacris, has gone on to sell millions of for Nashville, Tenn’s Broken Bow Records. His latest single, “Try That In A Small Town,” pretends to be a song about the resilience of working-class America but the video makes no secret of its nefarious aims. It is a vehicle to take shots at the perceived lawlessness in big cities, most especially protests against police and public demonstrations decrying racism.
We usually don’t center tweets from goofballs in the body of a story but here’s an example of what the minds of proud Americans are focused on instead of, we don’t know, human decency and common sense, maybe?
Here are the lyrics and hook for “Try That In A Small Town”:
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalkCarjack an old lady at a red lightPull a gun on the owner of a liquor storeYa think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his faceStomp on the flag and light it upYeah, ya think you’re tough
Well, try that in a small townSee how far ya make it down the roadAround here, we take care of our ownYou cross that line, it won’t take longFor you to find out, I recommend you don’tTry that in a small town
It is clear what Aldean is communicating and the video, reportedly shot in front of a former site where lynchings took place, speaks to the fragility of white conservative America and the silly attack on the “Woke Left” or whatever else these nutballs come up with.
Tacked onto Aldean’s controversy is some discussion from the MAGA weirdos about Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. Over a year ago, Brooks and Yearwood made a public appeal to help refugees caught up in the ravages of war in Ukraine. That video was resurfaced and the strawman arguments have only intensified.
Adding to this, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made an explosive goof even by his lowly standards after sharing an article from the satirical website Dunning-Kruger-Times (which should’ve been a dead giveaway but here we are). The article was about a fictional moment featuring Brooks being booed offstage for supporting Bud Light. Before deleting the tweet, Gov. Abbott used the tired phrase “Go Woke. Go Broke.”
On Twitter, the dumbassery of MAGA is on full display over Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, and all things ‘MURRICA. Check out the reactions below.
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